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Weather Vane (2010-10-28) Vol. 57 No. 6

Page 1

Horror House P.3 Albrecht Concert P.4 Soccer P.5 Take Back the Night P.6 WikiLeaks P.7
Eastern Mennonite University's student newspaper since 1939
Nationwide Fast and Prayer for Revival
Bekah Enns,
S taff writer
Beginning this week, EMU
students joined other college
students throughout the United
States to pray and fast for spiri­tual
revival on college campuses.
The nationwide movement
known as the Student Revival
Movement, was initiated by a
group of students meeting at the
University of California, Berke­ley.
International House of
Prayer, a Christian mission com­monly
known as “IHOP” and
grounded in the idea of 24/7
prayer, is helping to spur on the
revival movement. The mis­sion
contacted sophomore Chris
Stauffer a few weeks ago.
At EMU, the movement is
being spearheaded by Stauffer
and a group of his friends who
have been meeting on Saturday
nights to pray.
First-year Bridgett Brunea,
a member of the prayer group, is
excited about the movement. “It’s
about inspiring people to be more
devoted to God. It’s about praying
for revival,” she says. Stauffer
uses revival to refer to “a spiritual
renewal and an understanding of
putting the first commandment in
its place... which is love the Lord
your God with all your heart and
with all your soul.”
Along with the focus on
prayer, Student Revival Move­ment
is advocating a 21-day
“Daniel Fast” from Oct. 24 to
Nov. 13. The fast is based loosely
on Daniel 1:12, where Daniel and
his friends chose to eat only veg­etables
and water. However, the
specific requirements of the fast
are ambiguous, with ‘no meats,
no sweets’ as a minimum com­mitment.
“It’s about giving something
up. You can decide to what ex­tent
that’s relevant to you,” says
first-year Melanie Sherer. Brunea,
Sherer, and sophomore Mariah
Elliot, along with others, are
choosing to limit themselves to
only vegetables, fruits and water.
Stauffer is choosing the more
liberal option by “not eating any
meat, no hard core sugar prod­ucts,
and trying to eat as much
whole grain and vegetables as
possible.”
The term “Daniel Fast” is
being used at EMU to define the
movement, but sophomore Alys-sia
Zimmerman thinks it might
not “be an accurate term because
it’s the name for the diet, and the
purpose was different for Dan­iel...
Being Jewish, 1 understand
the Daniel Fast as setting one­self
apart from something that is
ungodly. I don’t actually think
that’s what [this movement] is
meant to do. I feel as if it’s meant
to commission us and give us
unity.”
Sophomore Jamila Wit-mer
is concerned that the fast
itself might take on too much
significance. “I don’t want it to
be a bandwagon that people just
jump on because it sounds cool,
or spiritual, or whatever. It has to
be with the purpose of praying
for God’s movement to happen
here,” she says. Witmer describes
fasting as a “way to remind
ourselves of what we are doing.”
To keep the focus on pray­ing
for revival, the student prayer
group is holding meetings every
weeknight from 7-8 p.m. in the
Campus Center.
Their prayer is based on
II Chronicles 7:14: “If my people,
who are called by my name, will
humble themselves and pray and
seek my face and turn from their
wicked ways, then will I hear
from heaven and will forgive
their sin and will heal their land.”
Stauffer invites everyone in­terested
to come to the nightly
prayer meetings. “Anybody and
everybody is welcome, whether
fasting or not. The focus is on
aligning our hearts with God and
not on fasting, although I do en­courage
people to be a part of
that,” Stauffer says.
Justin Roth
Christopher Mathias, from VASAP, speaks to students about the
dangers alcohol can present to college students.
"Risky Behavior" Informs
Some, but Misses Target
Nils Martin,
Sports editor
Students who attended the
presentation on alcohol called
“Risky Behavior” left with mixed
feelings about both the presenta­tion
and the issue of alcohol on
campus.
Resident Director Matt
Hunsberger organized this “real
world” presentation as part of
his duties as RD. “Each RD
was responsible for two ‘real
world’ programs that address ev­ery
day issues. This was my sec­ond
one.” Hunsberger contacted-
Christopher Mathias, a member
of the Virginia Alcohol Safety
Actions Program (VASAP), who
agreed to come and do a presen­tation
on the dangers of alcohol
in a college setting. Hunsberger
felt that drinking alcohol was an
“issue that needs to be addressed
everywhere and we do a good job
of addressing it here at EMU, but
sometimes it needs to come from
different angles.”
Mathias said that the main
purpose of his presentation was
to give information about VASAP
and also the main dangers of alco­hol
on college campuses.
His presentation ranged from
discussing the reasons why stu­dents
might drink, to the effects
alcohol can have on the brain. He
spoke about recognizing someone
who was abusing alcohol and how
this might affect their grades.
Mathias also commented on
the students that tend to show up
for his presentations: “Unfortu­nately,
we don’t usually get the
students in here who should be
here. They tend to be our clients
at VASAP.” Nussbaum added: “I
think presentations like this one
are good, but the people that they
are meant to be targeting are the
ones that don’t want to come.”
Mathias said he hopes that
students attending his presenta­tions
can become better at rec­ognizing
signs of alcohol abuse
amongst their friends and take
steps to protect them from these
bad habits.
EMU students came for a vari­ety
of reasons; some attended the
presentation because they were
trying to get points for their health
classes.
Sophomore and CA Erin
Nussbaum tried using the “Risky
Behavior” presentation as a hall
activity. “I was hoping that my
hall and I would learn some good
facts and be better informed to
make smart choices, however, no
one ended up coming with me,”
says Nussbaum.
Students that attended took
away different things from the
presentation. Junior Jerica Mar­tin
felt like she had learned some
new information about drinking
in college including, “different
reasons as to why some students
choose to drink every weekend
and go to parties.”
Nussbaum experienced some
frustration during the presenta­tion.
“I actually felt like, at times,
the speaker was saying that it
was expected that kids are going
to drink during college years. I
did not appreciate this because I
feel that it is this expectation that
adults and parents have which in­fluences
students’ decisions.”
Despite these frustrations,
students did feel like the presen­tation
was necessary. Martin said,
“I think this presentation is good
for bringing about awareness to
EMU students... I believe alco­hol
abuse is a bigger issue than
people like to think.”
Debbi Vasquez
First-year Haiey Grubbs, sophomore Chris Stauffer, sophomore Amin Laboriel, and junior Michael
Allen gather in a prayer circle Wednesday night in the Campus Center as part of the nationwide
Student Revival Movement.

Horror House P.3 Albrecht Concert P.4 Soccer P.5 Take Back the Night P.6 WikiLeaks P.7
Eastern Mennonite University's student newspaper since 1939
Nationwide Fast and Prayer for Revival
Bekah Enns,
S taff writer
Beginning this week, EMU
students joined other college
students throughout the United
States to pray and fast for spiri­tual
revival on college campuses.
The nationwide movement
known as the Student Revival
Movement, was initiated by a
group of students meeting at the
University of California, Berke­ley.
International House of
Prayer, a Christian mission com­monly
known as “IHOP” and
grounded in the idea of 24/7
prayer, is helping to spur on the
revival movement. The mis­sion
contacted sophomore Chris
Stauffer a few weeks ago.
At EMU, the movement is
being spearheaded by Stauffer
and a group of his friends who
have been meeting on Saturday
nights to pray.
First-year Bridgett Brunea,
a member of the prayer group, is
excited about the movement. “It’s
about inspiring people to be more
devoted to God. It’s about praying
for revival,” she says. Stauffer
uses revival to refer to “a spiritual
renewal and an understanding of
putting the first commandment in
its place... which is love the Lord
your God with all your heart and
with all your soul.”
Along with the focus on
prayer, Student Revival Move­ment
is advocating a 21-day
“Daniel Fast” from Oct. 24 to
Nov. 13. The fast is based loosely
on Daniel 1:12, where Daniel and
his friends chose to eat only veg­etables
and water. However, the
specific requirements of the fast
are ambiguous, with ‘no meats,
no sweets’ as a minimum com­mitment.
“It’s about giving something
up. You can decide to what ex­tent
that’s relevant to you,” says
first-year Melanie Sherer. Brunea,
Sherer, and sophomore Mariah
Elliot, along with others, are
choosing to limit themselves to
only vegetables, fruits and water.
Stauffer is choosing the more
liberal option by “not eating any
meat, no hard core sugar prod­ucts,
and trying to eat as much
whole grain and vegetables as
possible.”
The term “Daniel Fast” is
being used at EMU to define the
movement, but sophomore Alys-sia
Zimmerman thinks it might
not “be an accurate term because
it’s the name for the diet, and the
purpose was different for Dan­iel...
Being Jewish, 1 understand
the Daniel Fast as setting one­self
apart from something that is
ungodly. I don’t actually think
that’s what [this movement] is
meant to do. I feel as if it’s meant
to commission us and give us
unity.”
Sophomore Jamila Wit-mer
is concerned that the fast
itself might take on too much
significance. “I don’t want it to
be a bandwagon that people just
jump on because it sounds cool,
or spiritual, or whatever. It has to
be with the purpose of praying
for God’s movement to happen
here,” she says. Witmer describes
fasting as a “way to remind
ourselves of what we are doing.”
To keep the focus on pray­ing
for revival, the student prayer
group is holding meetings every
weeknight from 7-8 p.m. in the
Campus Center.
Their prayer is based on
II Chronicles 7:14: “If my people,
who are called by my name, will
humble themselves and pray and
seek my face and turn from their
wicked ways, then will I hear
from heaven and will forgive
their sin and will heal their land.”
Stauffer invites everyone in­terested
to come to the nightly
prayer meetings. “Anybody and
everybody is welcome, whether
fasting or not. The focus is on
aligning our hearts with God and
not on fasting, although I do en­courage
people to be a part of
that,” Stauffer says.
Justin Roth
Christopher Mathias, from VASAP, speaks to students about the
dangers alcohol can present to college students.
"Risky Behavior" Informs
Some, but Misses Target
Nils Martin,
Sports editor
Students who attended the
presentation on alcohol called
“Risky Behavior” left with mixed
feelings about both the presenta­tion
and the issue of alcohol on
campus.
Resident Director Matt
Hunsberger organized this “real
world” presentation as part of
his duties as RD. “Each RD
was responsible for two ‘real
world’ programs that address ev­ery
day issues. This was my sec­ond
one.” Hunsberger contacted-
Christopher Mathias, a member
of the Virginia Alcohol Safety
Actions Program (VASAP), who
agreed to come and do a presen­tation
on the dangers of alcohol
in a college setting. Hunsberger
felt that drinking alcohol was an
“issue that needs to be addressed
everywhere and we do a good job
of addressing it here at EMU, but
sometimes it needs to come from
different angles.”
Mathias said that the main
purpose of his presentation was
to give information about VASAP
and also the main dangers of alco­hol
on college campuses.
His presentation ranged from
discussing the reasons why stu­dents
might drink, to the effects
alcohol can have on the brain. He
spoke about recognizing someone
who was abusing alcohol and how
this might affect their grades.
Mathias also commented on
the students that tend to show up
for his presentations: “Unfortu­nately,
we don’t usually get the
students in here who should be
here. They tend to be our clients
at VASAP.” Nussbaum added: “I
think presentations like this one
are good, but the people that they
are meant to be targeting are the
ones that don’t want to come.”
Mathias said he hopes that
students attending his presenta­tions
can become better at rec­ognizing
signs of alcohol abuse
amongst their friends and take
steps to protect them from these
bad habits.
EMU students came for a vari­ety
of reasons; some attended the
presentation because they were
trying to get points for their health
classes.
Sophomore and CA Erin
Nussbaum tried using the “Risky
Behavior” presentation as a hall
activity. “I was hoping that my
hall and I would learn some good
facts and be better informed to
make smart choices, however, no
one ended up coming with me,”
says Nussbaum.
Students that attended took
away different things from the
presentation. Junior Jerica Mar­tin
felt like she had learned some
new information about drinking
in college including, “different
reasons as to why some students
choose to drink every weekend
and go to parties.”
Nussbaum experienced some
frustration during the presenta­tion.
“I actually felt like, at times,
the speaker was saying that it
was expected that kids are going
to drink during college years. I
did not appreciate this because I
feel that it is this expectation that
adults and parents have which in­fluences
students’ decisions.”
Despite these frustrations,
students did feel like the presen­tation
was necessary. Martin said,
“I think this presentation is good
for bringing about awareness to
EMU students... I believe alco­hol
abuse is a bigger issue than
people like to think.”
Debbi Vasquez
First-year Haiey Grubbs, sophomore Chris Stauffer, sophomore Amin Laboriel, and junior Michael
Allen gather in a prayer circle Wednesday night in the Campus Center as part of the nationwide
Student Revival Movement.